Worksheet not picking up landscape area plants

[Nic_Berry]

Good morning.  I'm very new to vwx and still finding my way around.  I'm trying to create a worksheet for a plant schedule and whilst it is picking up the plants I have placed individually, it isn't counting the plants that I have specified in the landscape area settings.  All the plants I'm trying to report on are on the same layer, but different classes.  

[Jonathan Pickup]

Hi Nic,

is it possible to post the file?

 

[Nic_Berry]

Hi Jonathan - I have sorted this issue now, but thank you

[verdancedesign]

Hi @Nic_Berry -- Is it possible for you to post the database criteria you used, or the worksheet you started with, or otherwise how you succeeded in counting landscape area plants within your worksheet along with individual plants? 

[verdancedesign]

Bringing this topic back to life in case @Nic_Berry or @Jonathan Pickup or @Katarina Ollikainen or anyone else has ideas…

 

I've got a landscape area comprising plants of numerous classes (e.g. named "PLANT-Shrub", "PLANT-Perennial", "PLANT-Succulent" etc.). I want to capture all of these, plus other individual plant objects, into one worksheet.  Furthermore, I want to group the plants by class in the worksheet.

 

Currently I'm successfully using multiple database rows within the worksheet to group the plants by class, with criteria for each class like:

=DATABASE(NOTINREFDLVP & (NOTINDLVP) & ((R IN ['Plant Record']) & (C='PLANT-Succulent') & ((L='planting'))))

 

This captures the individual plant objects, and also captures all the plants within any landscape areas that are assigned to one of my "PLANT-" classes.

 

However, if the landscape area is not assigned to one of those classes -- for instance, I've assigned it to "0" because it contains a mix of plant types/classes -- then the worksheet does not capture the plants that comprise the landscape area. 

 

So my question is the same as the original: how do I capture the plants in a landscape area into a worksheet, ideally by class?

 

Thank you for any guidance you can provide!

—John

[Jonathan Pickup]

Hi John,

can you post a file that I can play with? 

 

[verdancedesign]

@Jonathan Pickup I'll attach a pared-down version of my file as soon as I can… working under deadline this week so it might be a couple of days but I'll tag you when I do. Thanks!

 

(I would expect the behavior to be the same in any file that has both plant objects and landscape areas, though.)

[Tom W.]

12 hours ago, verdancedesign said:

I've got a landscape area comprising plants of numerous classes (e.g. named "PLANT-Shrub", "PLANT-Perennial", "PLANT-Succulent" etc.).

 

How are you able to assign individual Plants within a Landscape Area to different classes? 

[Jeff Prince]

13 hours ago, Tom W. said:

 

How are you able to assign individual Plants within a Landscape Area to different classes? 

You can build your symbol geometry on different classes as part of the Plant Object creation process and it will be preserved within the Landscape Area.

However, during LA creation those symbols will all be inserted on the active class, so it is not immediately apparent that nested classes are at work.

[Tom W.]

Just now, Jeff Prince said:

You can build your symbol geometry on different classes as part of the Plant Object creation process and it will be preserved within the Landscape Area.

However, during LA creation those symbols will all be inserted on the active class, so it is not immediately apparent that nested classes are at work.

 

Absolutely. But I got the impression @verdancedesign was talking about container classes e.g. =DATABASE(NOTINREFDLVP & (NOTINDLVP) & ((R IN ['Plant Record']) & (C='PLANT-Succulent') & ((L='planting'))))

 

In which case you wouldn't be able to combine succulents, shrubs, perennials, etc in the same LA + report on them by class.

 

(I think Plants must these days be one of the few objects for which you can't specify an insertion class in the Style...?)

[Jeff Prince]

2 hours ago, Tom W. said:

In which case you wouldn't be able to combine succulents, shrubs, perennials, etc in the same LA + report on them by class.

 

That's why he can't get the reports to say what he wants.  I don't see how it's possible using a class methodology to distinguish between plant types with mixed plantings as Landscape Areas.  You need different criteria for organization.

 

On 3/5/2024 at 11:14 AM, verdancedesign said:

This captures the individual plant objects, and also captures all the plants within any landscape areas that are assigned to one of my "PLANT-" classes.

 

However, if the landscape area is not assigned to one of those classes -- for instance, I've assigned it to "0" because it contains a mix of plant types/classes -- then the worksheet does not capture the plants that comprise the landscape area. 

 

So my question is the same as the original: how do I capture the plants in a landscape area into a worksheet, ideally by class?

 

I don't think you can accomplish reporting the plants in a LA by class due to the way vectorworks builds LAs as I mentioned earlier.

However, you could potentially use the Field "Category" and use the values in there to report out how you want, assuming you have been or will populate the Category field appropriately.

 

Adding this to your criteria for instance in place of a class methodology might work, I mean that's one of the reasons it exists... so you can organize your plant list by Category or quantify all the trees on a project for instance.  Just watch out for Shrub vs Shrubs and such...

 

('Plant Record'.'Category'='Shrub')

[Amanda McDermott]

10 hours ago, Jeff Prince said:

I don't think you can accomplish reporting the plants in a LA by class due to the way vectorworks builds LAs as I mentioned earlier.

However, you could potentially use the Field "Category" and use the values in there to report out how you want, assuming you have been or will populate the Category field appropriately.

 

Adding this to your criteria for instance in place of a class methodology might work, I mean that's one of the reasons it exists... so you can organize your plant list by Category or quantify all the trees on a project for instance.  Just watch out for Shrub vs Shrubs and such...

 

('Plant Record'.'Category'='Shrub')

This is how we do it - but it's easy to be caught out by 'Shrub' vs 'Shrubs' etc - it would be good if there was an editable drop-down list to choose from so you could remove some of that human error (and that list would alert you if both Shrub and Shrubs existed and you could take steps to get rid of the one you didn't want...)

[Tom W.]

36 minutes ago, Amanda McDermott said:

it would be good if there was an editable drop-down list to choose from so you could remove some of that human error

 

Another option would be to attach a custom record with a pop-up field for the Plant Type...?

[Amanda McDermott]

5 minutes ago, Tom W. said:

 

Another option would be to attach a custom record with a pop-up field for the Plant Type...?

True - a lot of the imported plants already have the 'Category' field populated though, so it would be nice to use that.

 

[Tom W.]

3 hours ago, Amanda McDermott said:

True - a lot of the imported plants already have the 'Category' field populated though, so it would be nice to use that.

 

 

Aha yes I probably agree with you + I think this relates to a wider issue regarding options for managing data attached to PIOs. With Title Block Borders for example you can rename existing data fields, add as many additional fields as you want + name them whatever you want, decide whether any field is text, pop-up, boolean, etc, decide whether they will display in the TBB dialog + in the OIP... It would be great to have the same flexibility with all PIOs. I don't really utilise the data attached to Plants that much myself but Doors + Windows you have ten user fields but no option to rename them, no option to change the data type, no option to have them display in the OIP... Be amazing if you had all the options you have with TBBs...

[Amanda McDermott]

5 hours ago, Tom W. said:

Be amazing if you had all the options you have with TBBs...

Whilst we're wishing for things, it would be amazing if when you've made custom fields in TBBs, you could hide the auto ones if not using them, so that our custom fields showed on the first page! e.g. we've made our own 'date' field, but I'm always accidentally filling in the auto one and wondering why it's not showing up (because I have to click through to the next page to find our actual field that populates our title block)

[Tom W.]

1 minute ago, Amanda McDermott said:

it would be amazing if when you've made custom fields in TBBs, you could hide the auto ones if not using them,

 

You can! As far as I know you have full control over what is displayed in the TBB Style dialog, in the OIP + in the TBB object itself obviously. What do you mean when you say click through to the next page...? Project Data + Sheet Data in the TBB settings...?

[Amanda McDermott]

On 3/7/2024 at 8:10 PM, Tom W. said:

 

You can! As far as I know you have full control over what is displayed in the TBB Style dialog, in the OIP + in the TBB object itself obviously. What do you mean when you say click through to the next page...? Project Data + Sheet Data in the TBB settings...?

Ooh thanks @Tom W., I do hope I'm just missing something! I mean in the 'Title block manager', where we fill in the fields for the project/sheet. This is what I see when I enter 'Title block manager':

 

 

In Project Data, I have to click through to 'Mange Project Data' to populate our custom fields for Project Name and Client Name (which do not have a tick next to them in 'Display', but do display in the title block when I edit the default text...)

 

 

Under 'Sheet Data' you can see I've now added custom instructions in the boxes on our template, because the 'real' date and scale fields that actually populate our title block are hidden on the next tab:

 

[Tom W.]

3 hours ago, Amanda McDermott said:

Under 'Sheet Data' you can see I've now added custom instructions in the boxes on our template, because the 'real' date and scale fields that actually populate our title block are hidden on the next tab:

 

You should get rid of any redundant data fields you don't want to see: in the 'Manage Sheet Data' dialog, uncheck 'Date' + 'Scale' + these will no longer appear in the 'Sheet Data' pane which should free up some space + mean the fields don't need to be spread over two pages (you can also resize the dialog to increase the display area). You can also change the stacking order of the data fields in the 'Manage Sheet Data' dialog + this will dictate the order they appear in the TBB Style/TBB Settings/TB Manager dialogs. This allows you to place the most important or more frequently used ones at the top for example.

 

3 hours ago, Amanda McDermott said:

In Project Data, I have to click through to 'Mange Project Data' to populate our custom fields for Project Name and Client Name (which do not have a tick next to them in 'Display', but do display in the title block when I edit the default text...)

 

Again, a tick in the 'Display' column will place the data field in the TBB Style/TBB Settings/TB Manager dialogs so check the ones you want to use + uncheck the redundant ones.

 

Similarly, in the OIP for a TBB object you have the 'Display Data Settings...' button where you can control which data fields display in the OIP (again via ticks in the 'Display' column). So this is useful if you have fields which are more convenient to edit via the OIP rather than opening up the TBB Style/TBB Settings/TB Manager dialogs + doing it there.

 

You have a lot of freedom to customise things exactly the way you want them!

[bob cleaver]

@Tom W.I have never clicked on the Display Data Settings field until now and WOW !  this is a brilliant workflow - thank you !! 

[Tom W.]

Yes I only recently found it myself! I have not been using VW2024 that much + this is new to VW2024. The OIP for TBBs is quite different now.

[bob cleaver]

Chapeau to Vectorworks !!

[Amanda McDermott]

On 3/11/2024 at 6:33 PM, Tom W. said:

 

You should get rid of any redundant data fields you don't want to see: in the 'Manage Sheet Data' dialog, uncheck 'Date' + 'Scale' + these will no longer appear in the 'Sheet Data' pane which should free up some space + mean the fields don't need to be spread over two pages (you can also resize the dialog to increase the display area). You can also change the stacking order of the data fields in the 'Manage Sheet Data' dialog + this will dictate the order they appear in the TBB Style/TBB Settings/TB Manager dialogs. This allows you to place the most important or more frequently used ones at the top for example.

 

 

Again, a tick in the 'Display' column will place the data field in the TBB Style/TBB Settings/TB Manager dialogs so check the ones you want to use + uncheck the redundant ones.

 

Similarly, in the OIP for a TBB object you have the 'Display Data Settings...' button where you can control which data fields display in the OIP (again via ticks in the 'Display' column). So this is useful if you have fields which are more convenient to edit via the OIP rather than opening up the TBB Style/TBB Settings/TB Manager dialogs + doing it there.

 

You have a lot of freedom to customise things exactly the way you want them!

This sounds great thanks, I'll have a go...

[Amanda McDermott]

@Tom W. thank you, this has worked and will make things much easier! I was confused because our custom fields were showing despite not being ticked, I guess that's a bug...

[Tom W.]

2 minutes ago, Amanda McDermott said:

our custom fields were showing despite not being ticked

 

Hmm I'm not seeing that... Make sure you are editing the TBB style... I can remove all fields except one.